John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his response to the EU Parliament's report criticising the Irish Government on the issue of extraordinary renditions, particularly the report's criticism of the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of either Irish or foreign based intelligence services here; his views on its call for a full parliamentary inquiry into the use of Irish territory as part of the CIA rendition circuit, and its call for all CIA aircraft to be banned from Irish territory unless a proper random inspection regime at airports, as recommended by the IHRC, is instituted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4272/07]

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 113: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the recent European Parliament report regarding extraordinary rendition; the steps being taken by his Department to allay concerns regarding this practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3940/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 113 together.

As Deputies will be aware, I was one of only two Ministers for Foreign Affairs to attend a meeting of the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (the TDIP Committee). There is absolutely no suggestion in the TDIP Committee's Report that extraordinary rendition took place through Irish territory, and I welcome this. It is consistent with the clear and repeated assurances we have received from the US authorities.

However, I regret that certain members of the European Parliament's Committee squandered the opportunity to produce a forward-looking document, focusing on the changes that may need to be made to the regulation of international civil aviation, as I had suggested during my exchange of views with the TDIP Committee, and have instead in places used the report to try and score partisan political points.

This has resulted in a number of extremely strange inclusions in the Report. In particular, I would highlight its call for a ban on all CIA aircraft landing in Ireland, which is extraordinary for two reasons. Firstly, Ireland is the only country where a ban is called for. This peculiar situation is explained by the fact that the "ban call" results from an amendment tabled by an Irish MEP. Secondly, the call for an absolute ban on landings by CIA-operated aircraft here is based on an illegitimate assumption that all CIA-operated flights are inherently sinister. Senator Dick Marty, for instance, who conducted a separate, Council of Europe investigation, recognised that "it is evident that not all flights of CIA aircraft participate in 'renditions'", and has indicated on other occasions that only a tiny minority of such flights might be engaged in such a practice.

There are many legitimate reasons for international cooperation in intelligence matters. The Report's suggestion that all such cooperation by Ireland should be cancelled because of a risk of extraordinary rendition, which it itself implicitly recognises does not occur here, defies logic.

Similarly, I fail to understand the Report's observations on parliamentary scrutiny. As I made clear to the TDIP Committee, the Ministers for Defence and for Justice, Equality and Law Reform are fully accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas for the activities of the security and intelligence services.

Finally, in relation to the call for a parliamentary inquiry, I would draw Deputies' attention to the fact that for the third time in less than one year, Seanad Éireann has voted not to establish a Committee of enquiry in this matter. It is not a question of the Government stifling debate, rather that Members of the Oireachtas are rather more objective in their assessment of the issues than are some of the members of the TDIP Committee. The time has surely come for all of us to focus on what concrete measures we might take to help prevent extraordinary rendition in the future instead of calling for even more inquiries.